Chicago Bulls give Luol Deng clearance to play for Great Britain at Eurobasket

Chicago Bulls star Luol Deng has been cleared to compete for Great Britain at the European Championships later this month.

Deng’s participation in the tournament had been in doubt due to insurance reasons following the NBA lockout, which meant that, although NBA players were still free to play for their national teams, they would not be able to secure insurance deals with the league’s help.

Ready for Eurobasket: Deng

That could have meant that costs were too high for the players and their national federations to cover.

However, Great Britain announced that, after 'working around the clock', the 26-year-old Deng would be available to complete in his first ever EuroBasket, having missed the event in 2009 through injury.

Deng said: 'Playing for GB has always been hugely important to me so I’m really glad we could resolve this. It has been a long process but a great team effort. I can’t wait to get back to the UK to run my Foundation camps before joining up with the team to prepare for Lithuania.'

Deng will miss the upcoming friendlies against Holland and Nigeria, but will be available for the six-team event in London in two weeks’ time.

GB performance director Chris Spice added: 'It is great for basketball in Britain that Luol has signed up for our programme again this summer.

'He has always been a great supporter of the GB basketball programme and we are excited to have him on the court again this year after he played such a key role for us in qualifying last year.

'With Olympic tickets sold out it is fantastic that the British public will get to see Luol play in the Olympic Basketball Arena in the London International Basketball Invitational tournament in two weeks time.'

Great Britain are still working on a deal for Detroit Pistons guard Ben Gordon, who is hoping to make his GB debut this summer.

EuroBasket 2011 takes place between August 31 and September 18 in Lithuania.